Of the second Act only two Scenes were written. In the first, Mercury, proclaiming in Olympus that Minerva has given life to the clay images of Prometheus, calls on Zeus to destroy the new creatures with his thunder. Zeus calmly replies that they will only increase the number of his servants, and Mercury, changing his tone, prays that he may be sent to "the poor earthborn folk," to announce the goodness and wisdom of the father of all. "Not yet," is the reply. "In the newborn rapture of youth they dream that they are like unto the gods. Not till they need thee will they listen to thy words. Leave them to their own life!" In the second Scene, we see Prometheus in a valley at the base of Olympus, surrounded by the new race of animated beings engaged in business or pleasure. There follow three brief Scenes which are meant to depict the dawnings of human consciousness and the conditions under which life is to be lived. To one he shows how a hut to shelter him may be constructed with the branches he has lopped with the aid of an implement of stone. In a dispute between two men, one of whom wounds the other and steals his goat, Prometheus pronounces the judgment that the hand of the offender will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. In the third and last Scene we have the most remarkable passage in the poem. Pandora, Prometheus' favourite creation, in dismay and bewilderment, describes the strange experience she has witnessed in the case of a friend, another maiden, and Prometheus tells her that what she had seen was death. What death meant Prometheus explains in the following passage, charged with the sensuous mysticism which was one of the elements of Goethe's own experiences when he wrote it:-- Wenn aus dem innerst tiefsten Grunde Du ganz erschuettert alles fuehlst, Was Freud' und Schmerzen jemals dir ergossen, [Transcriber's Note: corrected error "and" for "und"] Im Sturm dein Herz erschwillt, In Traenen sich erleichtern will Und seine Glut vermehrt, Und alles klingt an dir und bebt und zittert, Und all die Sinne dir vergehn, Und du dir zu vergehen scheinst Und sinkst, Und alles um dich her versinkt in Nacht, Und du, in inner eigenstem Gefuehl, Umfassest eine Welt; Dann stirbt der Mensch. When from thy inmost being's depths Shattered to nought thou feelest all Of joy and woe that e'er to thee hath flowed, In storm thy heart hath swelled, In tears doth find itself relief, And doth its flow increase; When all within thee thrills, and quakes, and quivers, And all thy senses from thee part, And from thyself thou seem'st to part, And sink'st, And all around thee sinketh deep in night, And thou within thy inner very self Encompassest a world; Then dies the man.